Allen Jackson - Finish the Course - Part 1
We began a new study in a previous session under the theme of «Dynamic Faith». A vibrant faith, a vital faith, a faith linked to outcomes and activity, as opposed to a static faith, a theoretical faith, a faith for discussion or contemplation. I believe for faith to be real, it has to be expressed. And I want to lead my life with a dynamic faith. In this particular session, we wanna talk about finishing the course. You know, how you finish is what matters. Everybody’s pretty at the starting line. We have new shoes. Cute new little sets and, you know, we stretch and, I mean, we all look like winners. The finish line is a whole different thing. There’s not enough oxygen. Our shirt tail’s out. Our hair’s a mess. We’re bent over. Somebody won and somebody didn’t.
There’s a lot more emotion, and the emotions are very different. How you finish matters. Christians have lost that. We’ve had a focus on how we begin. And I’m here to tell you we have to finish well. Before we get into those scriptures, I want to take just a moment. We’ve talked a bit over the months about the theater of the absurd. They’re still in business. And some weeks it’s just too much to ignore. We can’t make a comprehensive visit to their latest releases or we would miss our message. But we have an assignment to engage our culture. And there’s a temptation not to watch. People say to me frequently, «I just can’t watch the news,» or «I don’t want to be involved,» and I understand it can be very upsetting and uncomfortable, but I believe we have to stay aware or we can’t truly be salt and light. There are some things happening.
There’s a couple of things I, at least, wanted to call to your attention. The Teslas and what’s happening around that, is really an aside. I hope you understand, fundamentally, that’s wrong. The burning of cars or car dealerships by a group of people who just a few months ago said that electric vehicles were mandated, right? The use of violence to intimidate public discourse is a tactic of evil. Hard stop. Please don’t be confused. It’s a bullying tactic in order to completely stifle free speech. And if we succumb to that and you think it won’t be directed at you, you’re confused. But what I really wanted to start was the discussion, we’ve been having a discussion for months and years now around immigration and illegal immigration and people who come into our country illegally and the operative word in that is «illegally».
We’re a nation of immigrants. I’m very pro-immigrant. We have no nation without immigration, but we have typically done that in an orderly way, in a systematic way, in a purposeful way. I have personally helped multiple people immigrate to this nation. I’ve stood in line at our consulates around the world and done what I had to do to process paperwork and help people make that transition, but in recent years we’ve taken down those barriers. And we have been literally overwhelmed with people who’ve come to our nation illegally. And in the last election, one of the talking points of the group that is currently in authority was that they would begin to remove people who were here illegally and were violent criminals. And from the inauguration day until now, that’s like, it’s like all you hear. It seems to lead the news every day.
Have you noticed, if you’re for it, you get pictures and videos of very violent gang members being deported and you see them with their tattoos, and if you’re not in favor of that, you hear the federal judges that are trying to oppose it and put injunctions in place and to shut it down and turn the planes around and I mean it’s all, it’s like what we hear every day, the battle over the deportation of violent illegal immigrants. And you would think there’s an unending, it must be like a… it’s a violent flood of people being deported. So I stopped to look just a bit. The number’s a little over 30,000, but it’s less than 40,000 people who have been deported. And if you do the math, and I did the math last night in my head, and somebody sent me a text after service and told me I messed it up.
Forty thousand illegal immigrants have been deported, really just a little over 30,000 is the hard number. Violent gang members, TDA, I mean, people that have horrible criminal records, have been deported but it’s kind of frozen at the moment. It’s in legal limbo. You understand more than 20 million people came into our nation in the last handful of years? Twenty million. Thirty thousand have been removed. If you do the math on that, that’s less than two-tenths of 1%. It’s statistically insignificant. And think of all the emotion, the drama, the headlines, the pictures, the words, the chatter, the angst. This horrible act. We’ve got mayors of major cities opposing it, governors of states opposing it. Federal judges saying, «This is horrific». And on the other side we got Tom Homan.
I’ve been in a number of settings with him. I mean, I think he and a whole crew of people are working really hard. I’m not suggesting there’s not an effort, but I’m telling you that the desire to be cheered for, for doing what they said they would do and the desire to oppose it far exceeds the outcome at this point. It’s like a drop in an ocean. Violent, murderous, hateful people amongst us. And I think what we have to understand is it’s the expressions of public sentiment in support of or in opposition to that will determine the outcome. If we go back to our easy chairs and put our robes on and our slippers on and put our feet up and say, «Well, I hope they do their job,» it’ll stop. The people who are opposing what’s happening are very happy to go burn a car. Or a car dealership.
We have to use our voices in the midst of your friends. And at your kitchen table and your holiday table. Because the messaging that’s around it, what’s being reported, is absurd. It’s like a tempest in a teapot. We had more people on a weekly basis coming across our border than had been removed from our nation since the inauguration. There’s no comparison and we were told at that time that the border was secure. There was nothing to see here, you shouldn’t worry about it. Everything’s golden. So I’m grateful for the efforts that people are making to remove those violent criminals from our midst that have no right to be here.
See, I think we lose sight a little bit of the whole concept of citizens and our concern for citizens. We have concerns for those who have come here illegally. But I hope we have concern for the citizens of this country and the children of this country, for educational systems and healthcare systems that are overburdened. Citizenship truly does matter. It truly does matter. And with citizenships come rights and there come responsibilities. If you reject the responsibilities, you cannot have the rights. That’s the nature of a civilized system. And so as you’re watching this and you’re praying about this, please don’t let the tempest in the teapot confuse you.
You know, something more appropriate would be like a steady stream of buses, like a constant parade. We haven’t even, we don’t even have that imagination. The resistance is far greater than the affirmation. The other thing that’s happening and this was personal. There’s some conversations I’ve had in the last few weeks, but there’s an acceleration of the paganization of our health care system. I’m an advocate for our health care. I think we’ve had the best health care in the world. And if I weren’t doing this, I would be in the midst of that.
So I don’t mean this as a critique of those who were involved, but I think we need to understand what we’re witnessing. In recent years, not in just the last immediate, but in the last decade or so, we’ve had a national conversation around the desire that was expressed for universal health care. We wanted there to be universal health care. It was very clear. The polling was overwhelming. The national sentiment was expressed, and really the expression of that, what was really being asked for, was free health care for all. That was the demand and the way that that could be achieved reasonably was under the authority of the government.
So we have been, for the most part, silent and complicit as the government has increasingly exerted influence and authority over the health care system: How it’s delivered, how it’s paid for, what will be approved and what will be rejected, what procedures are acceptable and what aren’t, what vaccines will be mandated and which ones won’t. All of that has become a part of the fabric of our lives, and the outcome of that has been a dramatic paganization, and by that I mean the removal of a Christian worldview from the practice of medicine. Well, there’s still many Christians in the system. I’m not arguing against that, but the consequence is the systematic removal of a Christian worldview from health care.
Doctors are more reluctant to pray with their patients than ever. There are doctors who do pray with their patients. I’m grateful for that, but if they’re honest and you can find them in a private moment, they’re reluctant. It’s not encouraged. They don’t want to bring it to the attention of the system, of their corporate overlords. They’re concerned about the legality of it, the lawsuits of it. Doctors who speak out for the protection of children, of babies, are frequently censured, disciplined, pressured. Not unusual. Not arbitrary, far too frequent. Doctors who advocate for treatments that are not blessed by the CDC or the NIH or the AMA, those governing bodies of health and medicine in our nation or the profession, can lose their hospital privileges. They can even have their credentials removed.
Well, once upon a time we thought places like the CDC and the NIH and even the AMA, the American Medical Association, were beyond reproach. We’ve come to understand in recent years that they’re very corrupt. That they don’t always follow the science, that they have an ideology and a worldview, and they oppose a biblical worldview. And so the men and women who’ve trained to work in the healthcare system face enormous pressures not to advocate for their biblical worldview. Those are just the facts on the ground.
Now there are good things. I still think we have the best healthcare system in the world, but the quality of outcome will continue to deteriorate as it becomes increasingly pagan. If we don’t protect the unborn, we won’t protect the elderly. That’s not a theory, folks. So I have a suggestion. I’ve prayed about it. I’ve thought about it. What’s the answer to that? Well, I would submit to you that a return to Christian healthcare. You know, for many, many years, one of the ways that the Christian church made an impact in civilization and society was the extension of healthcare. We know that true from our own experiences in Middle Tennessee. For many, many years, the most celebrated opportunities came from places like Baptist Hospital and Saint Thomas Hospital. We live in Tennessee.
Most of us are very familiar with Saint Jude’s Hospital and the work they’ve done for children in Memphis. Most of those hospitals have been caught up in the corporate consolidation of healthcare being fueled by the government insertion and funding into healthcare. And while they still have Christian roots and Christian heritages, they don’t have the same liberties and freedoms that they did. At one time, the Christians were a primary provider of healthcare in our culture. That’s just our history. When I talk to you about the diminishing Christian influence in our culture, it’s not just that we took prayer out of our schools or we took the Ten Commandments off the walls or our universities have become, for the most part, opponents of a biblical worldview, even in the way we imagined healthcare. They’ve shaped our thinking.
Now we say, «Well, you know, Christians really shouldn’t have the kind of resources that would be necessary to provide health care». Why not? Should only corporate entities, government entities? It’s certainly not because the government does such a good job of managing the money we give to them. You have to watch and listen and think and pray. What’s happening before our eyes does not bode well for the generations who are coming behind us, and we had better have the courage to use our voices. We don’t want to be angry. We certainly don’t intend to be violent or belligerent, but we have to be determined in advocating for the cause of our Lord and the worldview that extends from the gospel. It starts in Genesis 1, and it’s carried through the last chapter of the book of Revelation. We have been presented with a faulty gospel, a gospel focused only on salvation. And the purpose of the new birth is to enable us to be light and salt in our world. And I’m excited about what’s before us. God has begun an awakening. And I believe we’ll see many of these things changed.
«Dynamic Faith» is the topic. How we finish the course is the issue of the session. There are some questions I wanna process with you. The first has to do with what’s trending. What is the current trend? What are we becoming, is perhaps another way to ask it. Last weekend I participated in the New Beginnings class, those who are newer to the church and trying to help them understand our community, and as I prepared for that once again, I was very aware that it’s very important not simply to try to understand our story in terms of our past, but in the context of our future. What is it we’re trending towards? What are we becoming? That’s true for our individual lives. It’s true for our families. It’s true for our community of faith. It’s true for our larger community. It’s true for our nation.
1 Corinthians chapter 9 and verse 24, Paul is writing to a church, a group of believers that he has shepherded into the faith, and he said, «Do you not know»? And when he asks that question, the answer is, «No, we’ve probably forgotten». «Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever». That’s speaking to motivation. What sacrifices will you make in order to achieve something that is temporary, that you can’t hold permanently, as opposed to what kind of an investment would you make in something that you could never forfeit. «Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air».
Paul is reminding his audience that although they have begun their Christian journey, they should pursue it with the attitude that the final evaluation is still before them. «Run in such a way as to get the prize». So my question to the current generation of Christ followers, I mean, I love to read my Bible. I like to reflect on Daniel and his courage, and Esther and her boldness, and Moses and his leadership, and I like the New Testament with Peter and his zeal, and I mean, I like the whole crew, but we’re the 21st century edition. Are we running in such a way as to get the prize? Do we recognize the difference between what’s temporary and what’s permanent? Are we allowing our success to be defined by a culture that is temporal, that’s passing away, or is the evaluation of our life and our effort and our thoughts and our dreams and our aspirations, is it held up against the measure of God’s eternity?
I know we’re in church and the answer is Jesus, but I mean, really. I don’t want your church answer. John 19, lest you think I’m overstating it, Jesus is on the cross, and «When he had received the drink, Jesus said, 'It’s finished.' And with that, he bowed his head and he gave up his spirit». He’d completed that first part of his assignment. «It’s done now,» he said. «There’s nothing left they can do to me. They have tortured me to death. I will give up my spirit». Folks, one day our lives will come to an end. And I don’t believe at that moment, at that crucial juncture of transition, that you want to point at your beginning. I think you want to point at your finish. I want to invite you to run as if you intend to get the prize.
I’m grateful for your resume and I’ll be happy to discuss with you the circumstances of your new birth and your baptism and how you’ve begun that journey, but I’m very interested in how you’re running the race this week. What are the expressions of your faith? What’s the fruitfulness of your life today? «Run in such a way as to get the prize». That is dynamic faith. Every season of life, I’ve had a few now, and every season of life comes with an opportunity to… you can scale back and provide for yourself excuses: because it’s a busy season and you’ve got little people in your life or it’s a resource-intensive season because you’ve got teenagers or it’s a self-centered season because you’ve retired and I wanna do what I wanna do.
There’s always a reason to push God to the periphery. They’ll never go away. We have to decide that I’m gonna run in this season, against the norm, against the curve. I don’t intend to be average. I want my life to reflect a commitment to the King of kings and the Lord of lords. I’ll use my voice for a biblical worldview. I’ll be an advocate in this season in the circle of influence that this season brings to me. I was encouraged when our school board voted to begin, our county school board to begin their county meetings with prayer. What an idea. It’s a very clear reflection of voices from people who live in this county. There’s some anxiety around it. «Well, somebody could challenge it». They very well could, but the people in this community can define community standards. That’s a legal principle. What kind of world do we want to live in? A dynamic faith.
Let me ask a follow-up question to that one. When is enough enough? It’s a question for Christians. Do you keep raising the bar? «I read my Bible last year, do I have to read it again»? People, I mean, I’ve heard that on many, «Pastor, I’ve done that. I’ve read it. I read it twice». Good, that’s very good. I would cheer for you and applaud you, but we’re not finished yet. And in the Christian community, we get a little addled on this. When is enough enough? It’s a very important question. In Numbers 13, it’s in… we’re gonna step into the midst of the former slaves of Egypt. Moses has led them. They’re right on the brink of occupying the Promised Land. They send the spies into the land to see what it looks like. They’ve never been there before. They have a lot of experience in Egypt but no experience with the fullness of God’s promise.
«And the Lord said to Moses,» you have it, it’s Numbers 13:1. «The Lord said to Moses, 'Send some men to explore the land of Canaan, which I’m giving to the Israelites. From each ancestral tribe send one of its leaders.' And they gave Moses this account when they came back. They said, 'We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! And here’s its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful, and the cities are fortified and they’re very large.'» It wasn’t long ago that this particular group of people were slaves in Egypt. They had no resources to extricate themselves from bondage. They had no political power, they had no military might. They had no economic strength. They had no opportunity to extricate themselves. They’ve been slaves for hundreds of years, and God sends Moses and all the drama around that, the plagues and the confrontation with Pharaohs and make more bricks and you get less resources and the suffering and the complaining and they’re finally released, and the Red Sea and the parting of the Red, you know the drama, you know the story.
This group of people, all of that is in their current experience portfolio. This isn’t like generational. This is their story. They’ve still got clothing with mud on it from Egypt. And now they’re standing on the opposite bank of the Jordan River and go, «That’s an amazing place over there. But it looks really difficult. There’s big people over there».
Now, Egypt was the most civilized, the most resourceful, they were the most sophisticated civilization of the day. So they’ve already seen God deliver them from the most intimidating opponent that is possible. Whoever is occupying the Promised Land by comparison is a weaker challenge. But they’re eating manna every day. They’re not planting crops. They’ve got a tabernacle now. They’ve got a place to worship. They’ve got a little structure around. Life is better than it’s ever been. They’re not going to the brick pits. They’re not tasting the lash of the whip from their Egyptian slavemasters. «And if we cross the river, there’s big people over there».
Very next chapter, you have it, Numbers 14, verse 1: «That night all the people of the community raised their voices and they wept aloud. And all the Israelites grumbled against Moses and Aaron, and the whole assembly said to them, 'If only we had died in Egypt! Or in this desert! Why is the Lord bringing us to this land only to let us fall by the sword? '» You know what they’re saying? «Enough’s enough. We’ve been through enough, we’ve done enough, we’ve faced enough. We’re being fed. It’s maybe not the best menu, but we get quail now. We didn’t used to get quail, now we get quail. The manna’s there. It’s only there 6 days a week, but it holds over for 7, so 1 day a week we eat leftovers, but it’s just one day. There’s been plenty of water. Our clothes aren’t wearing out. There’s no sick people amongst us. Life’s pretty good».
You know, I really dislike the idea of a religious lecture. I believe the point of ministry or opening the Word of God is to be transformed by it. So before we go, I want to give you two invitations. One’s a prayer I’m gonna pray with you, but the other is our offer this month. The book is «The Lord Is My Shepherd» by my friend Rob Morgan. It’s an important word in this season to understand God’s direction, his abiding presence, his protection. We all need that. It’ll be a blessing in your life and something I think you’ll wanna share with some friends, but I wanna pray with you before we go that we’ll know we’re not alone.
Heavenly Father, I thank you for the resources you give us, for the voices that you provide in our lives, that in a world of turmoil and confusion and, honestly, great fear, that your calm assuring voice guides us, and I thank you for it today. Thank you for your faithfulness, in Jesus’s name, amen.